Monday, August 17, 2015

The giraffe
(Giraffacamelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest
living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant. The giraffe's scattered
range extends from Chad in the north to South Africa in the south, and from
Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. Their primary food source is acacia
leaves, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach.
Giraffes are preyed on by lions; their calves are also targeted by leopards,
spotted hyenas, and wild dogs ~and ……another
predator, the man [rather the woman !]
- is killing of animals, a sport, especially when people aided with all
modern gadgets kill in cold blood !!!

In the film ‘Kalakalappu’, comedian Santhanam will show a portrait of a man attacking a cheetah with sickle. Hero Vimal would remark having seen it elsewhere… Santhanam retorts saying that it was his grandfather attacking the tiger – the photo which they later gave to matchbox manufacturer….. toVimal’s remark that it does not sound believable – Santhanam would say that his grandfather told him that food would be provided only if he believes and would ask Vimal whether he would like to dine !!!Wimco Limited is a reputed manufacturer and exporter of Cardboard matches, you would know them better by this single product ‘Cheetah fight matchboxes’…..

The
woman who posted images of herself with a giraffe she killed has defended her
actions – and called the animals “dangerous”.Sabrina Corgatelli first came
under fire from animal rights activists after she posted images of herself
online posed with giraffe carcasses and other dead animals during a guided hunt
in South Africa. Later, Corgatelli, an
accountant at Idaho State University, has defended her actions, telling NBC’s
Today show that she respected the animals despite hunting them.

Away from the
melee, there is more bad into hunting, when you read that it not exactly the
animals in wild – but ‘canned hunting’ more like breeding and developing
broiler chickens, only to kill and eat !!! – reports state that ‘Canned hunting' attracts 1,000 tourists a year to South
Africa's reserves, where lions become 'farmyard chickens'. In what appears like selecting from a menu,
prospective hunters receive a 'catalogue' to choose the exact animal they want
to kill, priced from £3,500 to £31,000.
Whilst Animal rights activists decry calling it 'unceremonious
slaughter', canned hunting bosses say it
boosts lion numbers.

Millions around the
world reacted with shock when it was revealed an American hunter paying tens of
thousands of dollars had killed Zimbabwe's most famous lion, Cecil.While the
way Cecil was lured out of Hwange National Park to be killed was truly
horrendous, it does not reveal the darkest side to Africa's hunting industry.
There is more sinister and dastardly - canned - or 'captive' - hunting in neighbouring
South Africa, where lions have been reduced to little more than 'farmyard
chickens', bred in their hundreds on private reserves before being released
just so that high-paying tourists can hunt them down using guns - or bows for
the ultimate 'trophy' kill.Shockingly, an
undercover investigation for a new film into the trade reveals that safari
companies will even send out prospective hunters a catalogue so they can choose
the exact animal they want to kill - ranging in price from $5,400 (£3,500) to
$48,000 (£31,000), depending on size and condition.

They are adorably
cute, with grubby brown fur so soft it seems to slip through one’s fingers like
flour. These nine-week-old cubs are not
playthings – they are born to kill, lion, a wild animal. Sadly, they are not wild, kept in a small pen behind the Lion's Den, a pub on
a ranch in desolate countryside 75 miles south of Johannesburg. Tourists stop
to pet them but most visitors do not venture over the hill, where the ranch has
pens holding nearly 50 juvenile and fully-grown lions, and two tigers.

Moreson ranch is
one of more than 160 such farms legally breeding big cats inSouth Africa. There
are now more lions held in captivity (upwards of 5,000) in the country than
live wild (about 2,000). Animal activists say that breeders remove the cubs
from their mother so that the lioness will quickly become fertile again, as
they squeeze as many cubs from their adults as possible – five litters every
two years. While the owners of this ranch insist they do not hunt and kill
their lions, animal welfare groups say most breeders sell their stock to be
shot dead by wealthy trophy-hunters from Europe and North America, or for
traditional medicine in Asia. The easy slaughter of animals in fenced areas is
called "canned hunting", perhaps because it's rather like shooting
fish in a barrel. A fully-grown, captive-bred lion is taken from its pen to an
enclosed area where it wanders listlessly for some hours before being shot dead
by a man with a shotgun, hand-gun or even a crossbow, standing safely on the
back of a truck. As the hunter pays
dollars, it is all completely legal !!!

A
normal shy individual might pay some dollars for a feel, cuddle, touch, hug, standing near, and a photo for
posterity and for upload in social media, the harsh rich ones select, pay and
kill the defenceless animal with arrow or guns with all tech-support. South
Africa has a strong hunting tradition but few people express much enthusiasm
for its debased canned form. It is still legal to bring a lion carcass back to
Britain (or anywhere in Europe or North America) as a trophy, and much of the
demand comes from overseas. Trophy-hunters are attracted by the guarantee of success, and the price: a wild lion shot on a
safari in Tanzania may cost £50,000, compared with a £5,000 captive-bred
specimen in South Africa. Five years ago, the South African
government effectively banned canned hunting by requiring an animal to roam
free for two years before it could be hunted, severely restricting breeders and
hunters' profitability. But lion breeders challenged the policy in South
Africa's courts and a high court judge eventually ruled that such restrictions
were "not rational". The number of trophy hunted animals has since
soared.

Breeders argue it
is better that hunters shoot a captive-bred lion than further endanger the wild
populations, but conservationists and animal welfare groups dispute this. Wild
populations of lions have declined by 80% in 20 years, so the rise of lion
farms and canned hunting has not protected wild lions. The lion farms' creation
of a market for canned lion hunts puts a clear price-tag on the head of every
wild lion, according to an activist -
they create a financial incentive for local people, who collude with poachers
or turn a blind eye to illegal lion kills. Trophy-hunters who begin with a
captive-bred lion may then graduate to the real, wild thing.

How
pathetic it sounds ~an animal which should freely roam in the wild, is bred,
lives shortly a life behind a fence, till they are taken out, shot by high
paying tourist. It would be good to shoot the animals with the camera not with
bullets or arrows.

With regards – S.
Sampathkumar

17th Aug
2015.

Collated from The Guardian; Bornfree.org; Dailymail;
PETA; Bloodlions.org, National geographic and other sources